Microsoft Windows Automotive — World's first production car with a factory–installed USB port

It's here.

After years of dreading Microsoft's entry into the car space, we need to come to terms with it.

Fiat has just announced, with much fanfare, its "Blue & Me" system, a version of Windows that will let you interface with the world's first production car/factory–installed USB port.

There's even a button with the Windows logo on the steering wheel to turn the system on.

Why am I not more excited?

Turns out, according to James Mackintosh, writing in the March 8 Financial Times, that Microsoft "has been quietly... for several years... running versions of Windows on cars from 19 companies but without visible branding."

Huh.

Of course, no story about this subject would be complete without the old refrain (Mackintosh used it for his first paragraph), to wit:

"If Microsoft made cars, the joke goes, they would crash twice a day, need regular upgrades and have to be replaced every time the lines on the road were repainted."

I must admit that I hadn't previously seen the bit about the lines on the road.